Demagogue

Armstrong Williams wasn't the only professional pundit whose opinion was for sale.

A senior fellow at the Cato Institute resigned from the libertarian think tank on Dec. 15 after admitting that he had accepted payments from indicted Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff for writing op-ed articles favorable to the positions of some of Abramoff's clients. Doug Bandow, who writes a syndicated column for Copley News Service, told BusinessWeek Online that he had accepted money from Abramoff for writing between 12 and 24 articles over a period of years, beginning in the mid '90s.

I suspect that when it comes to Jack Abramoff and the GOP the "six degrees of separation" rule doesn't apply, it's more like 3 degrees. Maybe even 2.